*Govt inaugurates committee on modalities

MINISTER of Education, Professor Fabian Osuji, has inaugurated an eleven-member committee to work out the modalities for the re-introduction of Higher School Certificate (HSC) as a qualification for university admission.

The committee, which is headed by Mrs. Olugbolahan Abisogun-Alo, OFR, who is also the Pro-Chancellor, University of Abuja, has the following terms of reference: Determine a feasible date of take off, designate the pilot institutions, designate the categories of teachers that would be involved in the teaching of the HSC students, develop the syllabi for the subjects to be examined at that level, and determine the examination bodies (internal and external) that would be involved in assessing students.

In his speech at the inauguration of the committee, the minister who was represented by the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry, Mallam Ibrahim Talba, recalled that the proposal to reintroduce  HSC was made at the Higher Education Summit held in 2002. The proposal was subsequently approved by the Federal Executive Council.

Some of the merits of this development, according to the proposal, is to enable students to become more matured before entering the university system unlike what obtains at present where young teenagers who are extremely susceptible to peer pressure get admitted only to become victims of the “culture shock” inherent in higher institutions.
It is also to admit only the most suitable of the prospective candidates so that those who are really not cut out for university degrees can seek other options, and reduce the pressure on facilities and resources.

In addition, the proposal envisages that the return of HSC will provide the panacea for the ugly vices and the anti social activities (examination malpractice, cultism etc) that have in the recent past bedeviled our campuses, since it is essentially those who are ill-equipped for university education that are in the forefront of criminal activities on the campuses.

Members of the committee include Dr. P.S. Abdu, Director, Higher Education and Dr. U.B. Ahmed (DPSE). Others are representatives of the Committee of Vice Chancellors, NUC, JAMB, WAEC, NERDC, ANCOPSS and NAPTAN. JAMB will provide the secretary. The minister expressed the hope that with the calibre of its members, the committee will submit an all-encompassing report that will enable government actualise the goal of rejuvenating higher education through the selection of the best qualified candidates for admission.

In her acceptance speech, the chairperson of the committee promised to take advantage of the wealth of experience of the committee members to do a thorough job in the interest of the nation.

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PRESIDENT Olusegun Obasanjo has approved the downward review of fees payable by students of the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN) by about 50 per cent.

The approval follows appeals by the students to the Senate of the university, which consequently recommended the 50 per cent slash to Obasanjo.

Hitherto, prospective students were to pay an average of N40,000 per annum. But the fee has been slashed down to about N25,000 per student.

Briefing reporters in Abuja yesterday, the university's Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Olugbemiro Jegede, said the Senate took the step in view of the students outcry against the former fees, which were considered exorbitant.

Jegede also announced March 29 to April 23 as the period for registration of pioneer students into the institution.

He said: "When we went round the country during the orientation programme in January, one issue that kept on coming up was the fees. The students requested that the management should table the matter before the Senate of the University with a view to reviewing the fees being charged.

"We took the message to the Senate of the University and they had another look at the structure of the fees to be paid at a meeting which took almost the whole days."

According to Jegede, given the situation in the country and the desire of the Federal Government that as many people as possible should obtain education, reducing the fees is an appropriate step.

"Hitherto, on the average, a student would need to pay about N40,000 as fees and these were not arbitrarily determined because they were calculated by the Senate and other arms at cost recovery rate.

With the downward review of the fees, it would mean that the Federal Government needed to put a lot of money to support the students.

"So, instead of paying N40,000 per annum, students will now pay about N25,000," a gesture he said was magnanimous on the part of the government.

He said that following the orientation exercise, which took place in January, the university was now ready to begin the registration of the students.

The vice-chancellor remarked that in line with a directive by the Education Minister, Prof. Fabian Osuji last January, the university's admission would soon hit 100,000 students.

Currently, over 32,000 students are scheduled to register in the next two weeks.`

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THE National Board for Technical Education (NBTE) has developed curricular and course specifications for 187 programmes at National Diploma (ND), Higher National Diploma (HND) and post HND levels for the nation's polytechnics and monotechnics.

The Executive Secretary, Engr. Dr. Nuru A. Yakubu, according to a statement by the board, disclosed this during the UNESCO-assisted Business and Management Curricular Review Workshop held at the NBTE secretariat in Kaduna. Yakubu also said the revised curricular include that of National Technical Certificate (NTC), National Business Certificate (NBC), Advanced National Technical Certificate (ANTC) and Advanced National Business Certificate (ANBC) for technical colleges.

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THE act of cheating during examination has taken on the garb of an organized business venture, spinning millions of naira yearly to the practitioners. Gone are the days when perpetration of examination fraud was done by individuals desperate to pass and acquire certain paper qualifications. Forming one big unholy alliance to aid and abet examination malpractice these days are many school heads, teachers, invigilators, supervisors, students, examiners and touts whose motive is to make quick money rather than genuine love for students being examined.

Although many students go out of their ways to solicit assistance during examinations, exam fraud syndicates that are fast growing in number across the country successfully recruit thousands of students into the fraud after assuring them of excellent results at the end of the day. “Examination malpractice has become a very big business; it is now a multi-billion naira organized business,” says Ike Onyechere, the executive chairman of Exam Ethics Project (EEP) a non-governmental organization spearheading the campaign to stop examination malpractices in schools told Education Vanguard.

The organized examination malpractice is rife at public examination such as Senior School Certificate (SSCE), Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), National Board for Technical Education (NABTEB) and the National Teachers Institute (NTI). Organized exams fraud thrives at “special examination centres” and schools in remote areas. The job of “examination contractors” therefore is to recruit students who can afford the “cooperation fees,” mainly students in urban areas, and register them at the numerous special centres across the zones of the country located in remote areas. Most of these special centres operate under the guise of tutorial centres and students so recruited have to travel down to those centres to write their examinations. The examination fee charged each student by these “tutorial” schools range from N15,000.00 to N50.000.00 depending on the nature of services required and the purse of the students as against the official cost for registering for those public examinations.

A letter written by Professor Leonard Muoghalu to public examination bodies while announcing the banning of “special centres” in Anambra State says: “The existence and operation of some educational centres for candidates wishing to register for examinations are no longer secret. Unfortunately, these centres are manifest agents of all sorts of examination malpractice, wreaking unimaginable havoc on our educational system... Consequently, the Anambra State Government has banned all special centres in the state. Henceforth, any educational institution that ogerates as a special centre will be closed down.” Some officials of these examination bodies for participating in aiding and abetting exam fraud, Muoghalu further says: “It is on record, however, that these centres are thriving because of the connivance and patronage of some officials of examination bodies who collude with the centres to register even non-bonafide candidates for their examinations. Some staff of the state offices of the examination bodies are notorious for this ignoble practice.”

Investigations by Education Vanguard reveal  that many schools across the country, apart from tutorial schools, are now collecting these “co-operation fees” from candidates which range from Nl,000.00 to N5,000.00. These fees are used by these “contractors” to bribe supervisors, invigilators and examiners for “co-operation” to aid and abet cheating during examinations.

The obtaining of genuine  question papers before the examination day is one of the first tasks that the “contractor ‘accomplishes after securing the co-operation of some officials of the examination bodies by extending a generous chunk of the “co-operation fees” to them. He then goes ahead to recruit “eggheads” who solve the questions for him. But he does not stop at that. The contractors envisages a situation whereby certain unforseen developments can prevent a “settled” invigilator and supervisor from playing ball during examination. He recruits a number of touts who take care of such situation.

These touts are deployed to examination halls to cause a commotion if there is no opportunity to aid the students in the examination hall. As soon as this is done and the attention of everybody has been diverted, answer papers are usually seen flying in and out of the hall, with the touts using the opportunity to deliver the goodies to their candidates.

The pecuniary gains derived from the business of examination malpractice have toughened the syndicates, becoming more daring by the day regardless of the cost and sanctions imposed by examination bodies and government on those caught perpetuating malpractices. Each year, for example, the five major public examination bodies in the country (NECO, WAEC, JAMB, NABTEB and NIT) cancel an average of 740,000 results on account of massive malpractice. Again, the examination bodies blacklist an average of 450 principals, teachers, supervisors, invigilators and examiners for their involvement in aiding and abetting examination malpractice each year. Each year 360 schools are de-recognised by the examination bodies as exam centres. About 9,000 students are handed over to the police at various centres every year. Resulting from cancelled results, a whopping sum of N17 billion is wasted every year in purchasing registration forms to retake those examinations.

The continued flowering of the vice in the nation’s educational system has cost a debilitating darkness on the integrity of certificates Nigerians carry about, and in fact examination fraud is being touted as the root cause of all other societal ills like 419 and other financial crimes in Nigeria. Onyechere says much of the effect of the menace in our society: “Until we are able to stop examination malpractices, the standard of education will continue to fall. Our problem in the country is not restricted to 419, it is not restricted to financial crimes or bank fraud. If we want to tackle these problem from the roots, we need to go to examination malpractice.” Although government over the years has given the impression that it lacks the will to implement the exam malpractice Law No. 33 of 1999 which stipulates imprisonment for culprits, the current Minister of Education, Professor Fabian Osuji has demonstrated his seriousness at tackling the issue of examination malpractice. Recently, Osuji and the National Council of Education (NCE) directed that schools involved in examination malpractice be de-recognized as examination centres for a period of three to six years with the possibility of extending the period. The recent sacking of 26 principals of secondary schools by the Kwara State Governor, Dr. Bukola Saraki for aiding and abetting examination fraud is yet another bold move at halting the dirty deal of examination malpracitice.

THE issue of examination malpractice in the country’s educational system is not new to many Nigerians. It is a vice that has been occupying the centre stage of public discourses in recent years. But not many people understand the phenomenon in all its ramifications. Apart from the generally known fact that students connive with teachers and invigilators to cheat during examinations, some “government’s policies also amount to examination malpractice.

Ike Onyechere, the founder and the executive chairman of the Exam Ethics Project (EEP), a non-governmental organization leading the “war” against examination malpractices in the country, identifies the various types of malpractices when he visited the corporate headquarters of Vanguard Newspapers last week, revealing that 33 types of examination malpractices are today in vogue as the phenomenon has become a multi-billion naira business. He talks about what he is doing to stop the vice once and for all. Excerpts:

What are the activities of the Exam Ethics Project(EEP)?

Our activities can be summed up by saying that we are promoting the cause of enthronement of examination ethics, of protecting the integrity of examinations. We are involved in the campaign against examination malpractice in all its ramifications and the efforts to restore character and learning to education.

Is there any relationship between examination malpractlces and the perceived falling standard of the Nigeria educational system?

I think it is a straightforward issue. When you have an educational system in which almost all the people in all the sectors are involved in cutting corners, not just students but parents also who encourage students; we are talking about teachers, principals, supervisors and invigilators and we are talking about a situation whereby there is malpractice in primary schools. For example, you know what happened during Unity Schools examinations. And this is taken over to secondary schools. You know what happens in secondary schools examinations like WAEC, NECO and so on. But the internal examinations are also full of malpractices. We have some states where there is the policy of automatic promotion. That is malpractice when you promote every person, just move along whether you pass or fail. And then go into tertiary institutions. You know what matriculation examinations are like. We don’t now know who to blame in tertiary institutions. Are we to blame the lecturer who goes on strike for six months, comes back and set papers for students for lectures that were not given? Are you now going to blame the student who must take the examination on topics he did not receive lectures on? Are you going to blame the government? So the whole thing is a massive vicious circle and on the relationship between examination malpractice and the falling standard of education, we can identify about 33 types. Until we are able to stop examination malpractices, the standard of education will continue to fall.

Presently, even if you have a Ph.D in Nigeria and you want to go to some universities, you have to undertake matriculation examinations.

Specifically, what are your strategies for stopping examination malpractices in the country?

One of the things we can do in stopping examination malpractices is to be pro-active. We have been making campaigns. But now we have realised that it is not just sufficient to talk about exam malpractices. It is also necessary for us to take pro-active and preventive strategy, especially like right now when they are preparing for examinations. We now have warning signs, we have now signals to show that people are preparing to perpetrate exam malpractices.

One of the things that should be done is for all the stakeholders to come together and have the courage to decide how to put a stop to exam malpractices. People are planning to perpetrate exam malpractice because malpractice has become a very big business. It is now a multi-billion naira organized crime business. Unfortunately, a lot of people have still not realised it that our problem in the country is not restricted to 419, it is not restricted to financial crimes or bank fraud and so on. In fact, if we want to tackle these from the roots, we will go to examination malpractices. Right now there are signals that people want to cheat in 2004 as before.

What are these signals?

Number one is that a lot of students who have stayed in schools for between five and six years really want to go and register as external candidates in remote schools because they can perpetrate examination malpractices there with the supervisors and invigilators and others forming one big unholy alliance. Every person knows that there is a massive movement from urban areas to rural areas. All we will do is to watch those rural schools they are going to very carefully. Secondly, we also have the information, which every person also knows, that a lot of schools are collecting what they call co-operation fees from students ranging from N1,000 to N5,000.

 The co-operation fees is what they will use to bribe supervisors and invigilators and whoever sends them, so that they will cooperate during exams. This is why you can see that during exams, supervisors can write answers for students on the walls. And that is why you can see sometimes students will be in exam halls doing nothing while the exam paper is being taken for them by machineries in another room because the co-operation fee has been collected and used. We have signals that there are schools that have been derecognized by examination bodies but they are still functioning and these schools are bastions of examination malpractices and we are saying that names of such schools should be made public. There are operators in the system, including principals and teachers, supervisors and invigilators and examiners who have been blacklisted by examination bodies, even though they didn’t have the courage to make their names public. These people are still in the system working. Those are the people who go as supervisors in remote schools. If we can ferret out the names of these people, we can move forward.

What other antics do students employ while perpetrating examination malpractlces?

Well, it is a lot. It depends on which category of schools. In primary schools, the unity schools, you find that they connive with their teachers. Teachers will show them finger signals to indicate whether A or  B or C or D is the correct answer. In the WAEC and NECO examinations, students use machineries. These days, they put the answers in mobile phone and calculators. They go out and search out for question paper and in the exams hall, if the supervisor is not co-operating, they cause commotion in the hall and before you know it, the papers are seen flying in and out of the exams hall. In and around exams hall these days, you find examination touts whose duty is to get the papers and run away with them for somebody to answer them. In the tertiary institutions, we have situations where students will order lecturers to give them certain marks. We have handouts malpractice whereby if you are a lecturer and you sell a handout to students and award certain marks like 40 per cent for those who buy it, and that is a pass mark in tertiary institutions. We also have situations where lecturers launch all sorts of things, they launch their cars, they launch their flats, they launch overseas trips, they launch the death of their grandfathers and so on. If you are a student and you don’t participate in the launching you have failed the subject. What of accreditation panels made up of lecturers who collect money only to write false things like saying this university or this polytechnic is qualified to run all the courses in this world, everything is okay when it is known that those things are not okay. I have been asking the question: Where are those accreditation reports that say those things are okay? Let us read them and compare them with what is now being said about those institutions. So we can identify 33 different types of examination malpractices.

Are you considering a legislative action like sponsoring a bill to make exams malpractice a very graveous offence in this country?

The answer is yes. We are currently working on that and our lawyers are looking at the exam malpractice law of 1999, with a view to putting forward an amendment which eventually we will present to the legislative houses. This is very important because we believe that the current law has a lot of defects. First of all, all aspects of exam malpractices are not covered. All those who are involved in its various permutations are not covered and we are working on a comprehensive package and in no distant time, we will make that public.

Do you subscribe to the view that too much emphasis on certificates push students to perpetrate fraud during examinations?

Yes, that is correct. To some extent that is correct. It is one of the causative factors but not the only one. Examination malpractice now is very deep. But students themselves have to realise that today acquisition of certificate is not the only passport to further studies or getting jobs. In a private sector, it doesn’t matter what certificate you have. Whether you make First Class Honours or Second Class or Third Class, they will test you, and you will undergo series of test. Even in government employment, they want result. In today’s world, you are not even sure you will get a job. So you are left alone to survive on the basis of your skills.